Jake White apologises to ‘phenomenal’ Owen Farrell as he blasts Bulls boo boys

Bulls head coach Jake White was disappointed to see England captain Owen Farrell receive a negative reception on his visit to Pretoria.

The 32-year-old started for Saracens in their Champions Cup tie at Loftus Versfeld but was consistently booed throughout the encounter.

This came after Farrell announced that he would be stepping back from international duty to protect his and his family’s mental health.

Abuse

He has received lots of online abuse and was booed throughout the Rugby World Cup, including by England supporters, and White was angry that Bulls supporters stooped to those levels.

“I must start by saying I’m apologising for all the booing of Owen Farrell, it’s not what we’re about. I don’t understand why,” he told reporters.

“I just think people have jumped on the bandwagon in terms of all the negative media, which I don’t understand.

“I said it in the week that he’s an unbelievable player. What he’s achieved in England is phenomenal. I’m really disappointed because I wanted people to enjoy the fact that you get to see him play at Loftus.

“You equate that to watching Tiger Woods play golf or you equate that to (Michael) Jordan play basketball. I apologise, it’s not really who we are and we will address that.”

Farrell struggled on the Highveld on Saturday as Saracens succumbed 27-16 to the Bulls in their Champions Cup opener.

The fly-half’s kicking out of hand was awry in the opening 50 minutes and that allowed the South African outfit to build a healthy lead, with Springboks flyer Kurt-Lee Arendse impressing.

Silly Billy

They were 27-6 behind when Sarries and England number eight Billy Vunipola was sent off but, to their credit, the visitors responded and gave themselves hope.

Elliot Daly and Theo McFarland touched down to reduce the arrears, but Farrell’s kicking issues continued as his missed conversions cost them a losing bonus-point.

That would have been underserved, however, after the Bulls dominated much of the match by scoring three tries and having three more disallowed.

“I’m very happy to beat a team like that,” White added. “It’s quite ironic, people say: ‘you should put them away and given them 50 points’, but you don’t become a team like Saracens if you give opponents the bonus-point, and they just give you a 50-point win.

“I just spoke to the coaches. They’re very happy with the way we started and that created momentum for us, but I always knew it was going to go to the wire and that’s because they’re such a championship team.”

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